Replacing a Xantia Timing Belt

ralph · Post by **ralph** » 23 May 2005, 19:06

Yes. It's a sod to find, and I rekon pretty near impossible if you've got big hands.
Slide your hand up behind starter, move over to the right, feel for that 8mm hole!
When timing the engine, having a mate turn the offside roadwheel to turn the engine in 5th gear.
You can do it alone, but it's tricky. When your pin locates in the flywheel hole, there'll be no mistaking it.
And finally, don't do this with both front roadwheels off the ground, or your wheel will turn, but the engine may not. Which freaked me right out!

Post by **RichardW** » 23 May 2005, 20:18

Yes the hole is awkward, but there is a kind of 'lead in' flange cast into the front of the block to make it a bit easier. Get a long (about 1m) piece of 8mm round bar and bend about 4" at the end to about 20°, and then chamfer the end. Disconnect the battery, as you will be near the connectors on the end of the starter. While standing by the OS front wheel poke the bent end of the rod behind the starter motor, just below the joint between the starter body and the solenoid, work it around a bit till you find the hole - you will know you are in it because the rod will push in further, and when you hit the flywheel it makes a very distintive ringing sound. Once you are in the hole, rotate the engine using the front wheel (as Ralph says chock the other wheel if it is not on the ground, or you will just spin that one backwards via the diff!) with it in 4th or 5th gear. Watch the hole on the camshaft sprocket so you know when you are close (IIRC timing position is at about 4 o'clock on the camshaft sprocket) then turn the engine over small amounts at a time whilst pushing the rod in, eventually it will drop into the timing hole in the flywheel. If you miss it the first few times, just turn the engine over till it comes around again and try again. With practice finding the hole is 'easy', and you can turn the engine with one hand, whilst having one hand on the timing pin. Note that if the area is very oily, you might have to take the starter off anyway - on my mate's Xantia there was so much gunky carbonised oil we had to take the starter off and clean it all out with a bradawl to get the pin in... It's possible there are 2 holes in the flywheel, so make sure you get the right one!

roypch · Post by **roypch** » 23 May 2005, 20:32

Many Thanks Ralph and Richard !
I finally managed to locate this flange hole by poking my finger behind starter. Yes it is close by a 'rib' which makes it easy to get the rod in. Planning to have another go this weekend again with replacement socket/drives (old ones all in pieces in my first attempt to remove pulley bolt).
Roy

roypch · Post by **roypch** » 31 May 2005, 15:14

Thought I would update my posting and thank you all once again !
I did change my timing belt in the end yesterday. It took me more like 40 hours than 4 hours. A number of times i gave up trying to lock the pulley by applying brake while undoing the pulley bolt.
In the end, as suggested in this forum, I removed the top front cover of timing belt, located the indexing hole on the sproket for fuel pump, put two bolts there. Having aligned it (prior to that i tried a lot probing/aligning the flywheel hole while spinning the wheel endlessly !), I put a 6 mm long rod into flywheel - casing hole. Using this 'long rod' in the flywheel hole was the only way I could lock the pulley/crankshaft from turning while undoing the pulley bolt. It felt massively tight but came off in the end.
Thank you all once again.

basil40 · Post by **basil40** » 31 May 2005, 20:24

I have great fears when it comes to changing the timing belt in my Activa. However, I fancy a go because I never feel comfortable when it comes to trusting dealer / franchised garages. Haynes suggest that you need to take the car in to the Citroen garage so that they can tighten the belt using this electronic gizmo. Anybody know how to judge correct tightness?

dnsey · Post by **dnsey** » 31 May 2005, 21:33

I've just done mine, and it wasn't difficult.
Just a couple of hitches - I had to remove a bit of the guard around the crankshaft pulley in order to fit a puller - the pulley was very tight, and refused to come off unaided.
The belt was exceptionally tight too (yes, I did slacken the tensioner!). I did all the usual stuff like fitting it onto the outer third of the sprockets first, but it was a real struggle to persuade to fit, and would probably have run perfectly well without the tensioner.

roypch · Post by **roypch** » 31 May 2005, 23:42

Just to add a line of encouragement to those like me planning to give it a try !. if i try to replace timing belt again i should be able to do it under 4 hours.
Removing the timing belt cover (mine was screwed in - not clip on type) rear piece took a bit of time. difficult to see the screw and there is little space to manipulate it because of turbo charger hose (?) being very close to this screw. Crankshaft pulley came off with a bit of wiggling after removing bolt. My old timing belt looked good - was replaced 60000 miles ago by previous owner. Auxiliary belt was in bad condition, so replaced that as well.
good luck to all

skeeheng · Post by **skeeheng** » 09 Aug 2005, 23:33

I'm most desperate! Will a kind soul please advise where else the bolts/nuts for the rear cam-belt cover are located - apart from the single obvious one on the front of the cover? I've spent nearly the whole day looking for it/them, tugging at every turn!! Unfortunately the Haynes manual is most economic on the dismantling of the covers.

ralph · Post by **ralph** » 10 Aug 2005, 00:44

There's a bolt down the back of the rear cover. It's 11mm and pretty awkward. From memory, I needed to pull the engine forward to get access to it on my Xsara (which you can do since you've removed the top mounting bracket).

Post by **RichardW** » 10 Aug 2005, 13:00

There's one on the front cover at the front top, next to the alternator / HP pump mount (depending on the position of the alternator and HP pump). That's the easy one! There's a 10mm nut on the front cover right behind the engine mount that is best accessed from underneath with the crankshaft pulley removed - you need to get the nut right off to get the bottom cover off. There's a 10mm bolt in the rear cover also behind the engine mount, get this from the top. Both of these are much easier to see if the engine mount is first removed. The final one is down the back of the engine, hidden right under the turbo pipe, maybe 2" above the chassis leg, and on the engine side of the cover - this one is 11mm. You might get it by slackening the turbo pipes across the top of the engine and easing them back, but first time it's probably 'easier' to remove both the pipes - you probably need a 7mm socket on a flexible drive to get the jubilee clips undone.
To get the bottom cover off, there are 2 10mm bolts that will be obvious with the crank pulley off.

skeeheng · Post by **skeeheng** » 11 Aug 2005, 04:03

Thanks, Ralph, Richard & Roy for your helpful comments on the anchor points of the cam-covers. Having identified the bolt on the rear cover my thumb and index finger were not spared further abuse working loose the 11mm rogue bolt hard against the foam rubber sleeve protecting the hose. I won't ask how you guys cleared the cover from the lifting lug (L-shaped)which I had to re-shape with a mallet - I was not prepared to remove bits infinitum just to move a plastic cover!
Tha Xantia wasn't designed as much as being cobbled together - methinks!